Pitcher cooler combination



Sept. 14, 1965 A. M. sToNl-:R 3,205,678

PITCHER COOLER COMBINATION Filed oCt. 25, 1963 2y Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. ARTHUR M. S70/VER ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office 3,205,678 Patented Sept. 14, 1965 3,25,6'73 PITCHER COOLER COMBlNA'HN Arthur M. Stoner, likt). Bex 134, Madison, Conn. Filed Uct. 25, 1963, Ser. No. 313,306 7 Claims. (Si. 62-457) This invention relates to a novel pitcher-cooler combination.

It has long been recognized that putting ice into the various drinks requiring cooling or maintenance at a cool temperature, is often undersirable because the melting of the ice dilutes the drink. To sink a pitcher full of the drink in a tub of ice is often equally undesirable. The tub is bulky, the procedure is messy and time consuming, and the whole is inelegant and inconvenient.

The expedient of cooling the pitcher full of liquid directly by electrical refrigeration does not solve the problem of keeping the pitcher and its contents cool once they have been taken out of the refrigerator.

One object of this invention is to provide a novel assembly for cooling or keeping cool for a substantial period of time a pitcher and its contents. The invention employs a novel type of double-walled cooling container with refrigerant between its walls, the pitcher being inserted in and being freely removable from the cooling container.

Another object is to enable the whole to be made elegantly yet inexpensively and for the pitcher to be made from inexpensive glassware made to standard production tolerances to be used in conjunction with a separate device for cooling or keeping cool the actual pitcher from which the food or drink is served.

Another object is to provide a device which will obtain efhcient cooling from a double-walled cooling container in spite of the surface irregularities which inexpensive pitchers made by standard production methods have. Ob-

viously it would be unfeasible to require that the surface of the pitchers have no surface irregularities, for precision manufacture of pitchers would add too much to their cost.

Another problem which occurs when using pitchers in cooling devices is how to prevent them from freezing to the device so that they cannot be taken out conveniently. An object of this invention is to prevent such sticking together of the pitcher and the cooling device.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cornbination in which the double-walled container, when taken out of the freezer for use, is supported by a housing member that need not itself be cooled but which affords a vdead-air space around the walls of the double-walled container. A feature of the combination is that the doublewall container is freely separable from the housing at will, so that the housing need not be precooled and thus does not generally tend to sweat and run with condensed moisture.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description of some preferred forms thereof.

In the drawings:

FIG. l is a view in elevation and about half in section of a cooling device embodying the principles of the invention shown in use with its glass pitcher inside.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view thereof.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary View in elevation and in section of the lip-juncture where the inner and outer cups of the double-walled container are seamed together.

The invention comprises three sub-assemblies: (l) a pitcher 1t) or other vessel for containing the liquid to be cooled or kept cool, (2) a double-walled cooling container 11, which is refrigerated for cooling the pitcher 1'@ or other vessel, and (3) an outer housing assembly 12 which insulates and encloses the container 11. A lip 13 at the upper end of the container 11 rests on a shoulder 14 of the outer housing assembly 12, during use. The filled pitcher 10 is simply placed inside the container 11, from which it is freely separable, as is the container 11 from the housing assembly 12. The container 11 holds a suitable refrigerant, such as a liquid 15 in between an inner cup 16 and an outer cup 17. The pre-frozen liquid 15 absorbs heat from the pitcher 10 and its contents 18, while a dead-air space 19 between the outer cup 17 and the housing 12 prevents dissipation of the cooling power of the frozen liquid 15.

The outer housing assembly 12 is preferably made in two pieces; a lower vessel 20 of metal, such as stainless steel, and `an upper ring 21 of rigid plastic or other suitable insulating material. The ring 21 is preferably shaped to provide not only the upper shoulder 14 but also a lower shoulder 22 which engages and rests on the rim 23 of the vessel 20, with a depending portion 24 lying between the shoulders 14 and 22 and thereby insulating the double-walled container 11 from the metal vessel 20. The principal insulation between the two units 11 and 12 is provided by the dead air space 19 which is relatively large and is determined by and defined by the ring 21. The ring 21 also is shaped to provide a pair of handles 25 and 26 and a wall 27 that results in the lip 13 being down in a short well, Where the cooler 11 is further protected and shielded.

Below the ring 21 I prefer to provide a plastic from liner 2S in order to reduce sweating of the outer stainless steel vessel 2t). The liner 23 may be molded to shape and inserted prior to assembly of the ring 21 or it may be flexed sufhciently so that it can be popped into place after the ring 21 has been permanently settled to the metal vessel 20 and even permanently assembled to it. There is still an air space between the inner container or capsule 11 and the plastic foam insulating liner 28. I have found that the liner 23 not only prevents sweating on the exterior of the vessel 20 but also increases the efficiency of insulation.

An important feature of the invention is that the inner container 11 is freely disengageable from the outer housing 1?. for freezing its refrigerant 15 or for any other purpose, such as dishwashing, and the separation may be accomplished merely by lifting the container 11 out therefrom.

The double-walled container 11 is a finished unit which, once assembled, is not taken apart. Its inner cup 16 is made from a flexible plastic such as linear polyethylene and is molded with a side wall 30 which is smoothly tapered at an inclu-ded angle lying between 10 and 30 with respect to the axis. Any container having substantially the same taper, may be installed into the inner cup 16 substantially in contact with the wall 30. Since the upper end of the pitcher 1t? lies well above the lip 13, for best results the drink or food in the glass should not be filled above the height which will lie within the container 11, the neck 31 and upper end 32 thereabove enabling the pitcher to be readily removed from the container 11 or to be held and poured thereby, the liquid passing out through the spout 33. Preferably, the weight of the glass is kept at a minimum in order to obtain maximum efiiciency of the cooling of its contents. Pitcher 10 having a heavy wall or a thick bottom are less desirable, for any excess weight of glass will absorb the cooling energy available from the refrigerant 15 and retard the initial rate of cooling of the pitcher 1) and of its contents 18.

I have found that the angle of the taper of the wall 30, that is, the angle wich the wall 30 makes with its axis or with a cylinder, should not be less than 5; otherwise the pitcher 10 has an excessive tendency to stick to the wall 30. During use, a layer of frost unavoidably forms on the inner surface of the wall 30, and if the taper is less than about 5, the frost tends to cause such a binding that the pitcher tends to stick in the container 11 and cannot be withdrawn. A 15 taper (or included angle of 30) appears to be about the maximum that `should be used without overly reducing the thermal eiiiciency of the device by having a large top opening and without causing the device to occupy too much storage space.

Contact between the pitcher 10l and' the wall 30 is not necessary near the bottomof the pitcher 10, because the practical problem is to get the maximum cooling eiiiciency for the contents of the pitcher when it is illed to the level shown in FIG. l. As the contents are consumed`the cooling requirements become less anyway.

A close fit between the wall 30V and the pitcher 10 is important to insure good heat transfer, and here the ilexibility of the plastic is important. In fact, it has been found that the container 11, when made of a iiexible plastic such as linear polyethylene has superiorities to metal containers for cooling the pitcher 10 and its contents. The reason is that the plastic of the cup 16 is made suiiiciently flexible to conform' very closely' to the contour of the pitcher or other vessel that is inserted into it. The thermal conductivity of the plastic is much less than that of metal, being perhaps only one-tenth as much as that of aluminum. Yet this does not adversely affect the efliciency of cooling the glass container 10, and the low thermall conductivity of the plastic proves to` be an advantage, for less heat is lost through the outer shell 17 of the container or capsule 10 and there is far less frosting on the inner shell 16. Frost, being an insulator, tends to reduce the rate of heat transfer and since less is formed on a plastic shell 16 than on la metal one, the heat transfer of the plastic is enhanced. This is furthered by the exceptionally close tit obtainedby the close conformation of the plastic to the glass'. Also what frost doesform on the plastic wall 30' is immediately melted by the contact with the relatively warmer exterior surface of the glass of'thepitcher 1'0. In any event, the cost of the plastic capsule 11 is but a fraction of the cost of metal ones and the rate of thermal conductivity of the plastic is still1 more than suiiicient to maintain the ternperature of the contents 1S within the desired temperature range of 26 to 40 F. for aperiod of over four hours.

At the upper end of its main` tapered wall 30 the inner cup 16 diverges from the pitcher 10'in an outwardly extending flange- 34l` to a peripheral lip 35 and aligning depending portion 36.

The outer cup 117` is made froml soft flexible plastic, such as linear polyethylene, andv has a' bottom Wall 40 which, when the capsule unit 11 is assembled, is spaced axially belowV the bottom wall 37 of the inner cup 16. The cup 17 also has a .side Wall 41 terminating in a lip flange 42 which is sealed to the flange 35V and portion 36 to form the lip 13. The cups 16 and 17 may be sealed together by spinning the inner cup 16 inside the outer cup 17, the friction at the points of contact causing the plastic on both parts to melt sufficiently to bond 4 the joint firmly. Care istaken not to let the refrigerant liquid (which may be a glycerin-in-water solution) rise so high that it gets in between the joints during this operation where it would coolI and lubricate the parts and prevent the requisite heating and sealing. Alternatively, ultrasonic welding lor hot die heat, sealing may be used.

The volume of the space 43 between the double walls 30 and 41 for best results is preferably about three-quam ters of the capacity of the pitcher 10 to be used. The refrigerant 15 preferably fills approximately 80% Ll-5% of the space 43, so that the space 43 is not so filled that expansion of the liquid 15 as it cools can cause damage to the container 11. Preferably, a coolant 15 is used which freezes at about 26. A much' lower freezingpoint material 15 tends to cause the pitcher 10 t0 freeze and stick in the cooler 11, while it also lowers the thermal capacity, since the agents added to water to reduce its freezing point also reduce the latent heat of fusion of the resulting solution.

In order to maintain the true conical shape of the wall 30 during freezing and resultant expansion of the refrigerant, the wall 30 is made more rigid than the outer cup 17, and the outer cup 17 is relied on to take care of this expansion. Heat sealing of the liange 35 to the liange 42 is best done when the inner and outer containers 16 and 17 are made of the same plastic, so that they have the samev melting points. Therefore, the inner wall 30 is made thicker than the outer Wall 17e.g., the inner Wall 16 may be 0.047 thick and' the wall 1'7 may be 0.040 thick. Thus, the inner wall is unaffected by freezing while the outer wall bulges slightly.

When the pitcherV 10 is first placed intov the capsule 11 that has been freshly removed from a freezer, the taper of the pitcher 10 may have a somewhat limited area of contact with the capsule wall 30, touching it at only two or three spots or so. However, the refrigerant 15 adjacent such spots of contact soon melts and the flexible plastic wall 30 then conforms to the contour of the pitcher 10, so that the area of contact increases and soon becomes great enough to produce the heat transfer needed for eiiicient operation.

Of course, the container 11 may be made with its inner wall 30 having a different form from a strictly frusto-coni- Cal surface. It can be curved, so` long as the glasses are made to match it, but the tapered surface is usually less expensive and more practical.

In use, the container 1'1 is put into a freezer for suiiicient time to bring its temperature down yto about 0 F. When the container 11 is to be used, it is taken out of the freezer, and the container 11 is placed in its housing 12 with its lip 13 resting on the shoulder 14;the assembly may be left this way for a while, if desired. An empty pitcher 10' may then be placed in the doublewalled container 11 and it may be left empty for perhaps 20 minutes prior toiilling, or, if desired, the pitcher 10 can be lled before being putinto the cooler 11. If the pitcher 10 is put in empty and left for a while, the drink is cooled more quickly, timing from the moment the drink is put into the pitcher 10. The assembly can be handled by its handles 25 and 26 or the pitcher 10 can be removed for pouring drinks into glasses.

The pitcher 10 is preferably provided with a plastic lid or lip 50 having an upwardly extending plastic handle 51 and a downwardly extending plastic stirring rod 52. This enables the liquid 18 inside the pitcher 10 to be stirred from time to time while it is being cooled, by lifting the lid 50 slightly by the handle 51. An opening 53 assures that the liquid 18 cany be poured out through the spoutl 33 while the lid 50v is on.

To those skilled in the art to which this invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The disclosures and the description herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.

I claim:

1. A device for cooling liquids in removable vessels of the type having side walls that flare smoothly from a narrower base to a wider upper end, said device including in combination:

a double-walled intermediate separable container of flexible plastic having an inner-wall smoothly ared to match the flare of said vessel and afford Contact and heat-exchange relation therewith over a substantial height and an outer wall spaced out radially from said inner wall and spaced out axially at the lower end said outer wall being thinner than said inner Wall so as to enable expansion caused by separate freezing of said container, said walls being sealed together at their upper ends and providing an outwardly projecting lip therearound,

a refrigerant liquid in between said walls and occupying less volume than the space between said walls, and

an outer container engaged at its upper end by said lip at the upper end of said intermediate container and otherwise spaced therefrom at all points to provide a dead air space therebetween, said intermediate container being freely separable from said outer container at will by merely lifting it out by its said lip.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said outer container comprises a metal shell and an insulating ring secured to the upper end of said shell and having handle portions extending out therefrom and a lip-supporting rim extending radially inwardly threfrom and supporting said lip, so that at all points said intermediate container is spaced from said metal shell.

3. A portable combined cooling device, including in combination a separable double-walled intermediate container having a flexible plastic inner wall smoothly ared at between and 30 included angle and a more flexible plastic outer wall spaced out from said inner wall radially and axially at the lower end, said walls being sealed together at their upper ends and providing an outwardly extending lip therearound,

a refrigerant liquid in between said walls filling most but not all the space between them, said refrigerant liquid frozen while said container is inverted, before use of said device, said outer wall then enabling deformation due to freezing while leaving said inner wall free of deformation,

an outer housing having an insulated upper end on which the lip on the upper end of said container rests when said device is in use, said housing being spaced from said container at all other points to provide a dead air space therebetween, said housing being freely separable from said container by merely lifting said container out therefrom, so that only said container need be pre-cooled in a freezer, and

a separate vessel tapered to match the are of said inner wall of said double-walled intermediate container and having an upper end extending above the upper end of said container, said vessel being freely insertable in and removable from said double-walled container for the cooling of its contents by heatexchange relation with said inner wall of said container and the consumption of its contents away from said container.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein said insulated upper end comprises a one-piece plastic ring and the remainder of said outer housing comprises a metal vessel to the upper end of which said ring is secured, said ring having an outer 4peripheral shoulder on its lower surface, below which projects a stabilizing projection inside said metal vessel, an inner peripheral shoulder on which said lip rests above and spaced inwardly from the upper end of said metal vessel, said ring having a wall extending above said inner peripheral shoulder with a pair of upwardly and outwardly flaring handles thereon.

5. The device of claim 3 wherein said separate vessel comprises a decanter-like glass pitcher having a neck extending above said container, having a pouring spout at its upper end.

6. The device of claim 5 wherein said pitcher has a. lid on its upper end leaving said pouring spout open and having an upwardly extending handle and a downwardly extending stirring rod.

7. The device of claim 3 wherein said outer wall is substantially thinner than said inner wall.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,721,311 7/32 Muenchen 62-457 2,622,415 12/52 Landers et al. 62--457 FOREIGN PATENTS 402,889 12/ 33 Great Britain.

ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner.

EDWARD J. MICHAEL, Examiner. 

1. A DEVICE FOR COOLING LIQUIDS IN REMOVABLE VESSELS OF THE TYPE HAVING SIDE WALLS THAT FLARE SMOOTHLY FROM A NARROWER BASE TO A WIDER UPPER END, SAID DEVICE INCLUDING IN COMBINATION: A DOUBLE-WALLED INTERMEDIATE SEPARABLE CONTAINER OF FLEXIBLE PLASTIC HAVING AN INNER WALL SMOOTHLY FLARED TO MATCH THE FLARE OF SAID VESSEL AND AFFORD CONTACT AND HEAT-EXCHANGE RELATION THEREWITH OVER A SUBSTANTIAL HEIGHT AND AN OUTER WALL SPACED OUT RADIALLY FROM SAID INNER WALL AND SPACED OUT AXIALLY AT THE LOWER END SAID OUTER WALL BEING THINNER THAN SAID INNER WALL SO AS TO ENABLE EXPANSION CAUSED BY SEPARATE FREEZING OF SAID CONTAINER, SAID WALLS BEING SEALED TOGETHER AT THEIR UPPER ENDS AND PROVIDING AN OUTWARDLY PROJECTING LIP THEREAROUND, A REFRIGERANT LIQUID IN BETWEEN SAID WALLS AND OCCUPYING LESS VOLUME THAN THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID WALLS, AND AN OUTER CONTAINER ENGAGED AT ITS UPPER END BY SAID LIP AT THE UPPER END OF SAID INTERMEDIATE CONTAINER AND OTHERWISE SPACED THEREFROM AT ALL POINTS TO PROVIDE A DEAD AIR SPACE THEREBETWEEN, SAID INTERMEDIATE CONTAINER BEING FREELY SEPARABLE FROM SAID OUTER CONTAINER AT WILL BY MERELY LIFTING IT OUT BY ITS SAID LIP. 